 BetterPhoto Member |
Exposure Setting with Off Camera Flash There have been many postings on Exposure and using the reflective metering within the camera. I own a minolta Maxxum 5 and will soon be taking some photos of a wedding. I purchased a bracket and Vivitar non dedicated flash. My question is this. The maxxum (on manual setting) will tell you if the current aptr/shutter selectings are ok (shown as 0 ) or plus or minus 1, 2 etc. I plan to fix the aperature at 5.6 or 8. How do I take into account the extra light generated by the flash? I plan to spot meter with the camera to get the correct shutter speed but how will I know how much to compensate for the flash? The church is modern and has stage lights pointing on the stage where the wedding will take place. The flash is mostly for fill effect. In that case is it negligible? Also should I spot meter the white of the dress, the black of the tux, avereage the two or spot the faces? Lot's of questions...but thanks.! Mark
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Jon Close |
Your non-dedicated Vivitar flash is most likely auto-exposure. It'll have a light sensor on the front that measures and controls the flash light output. You need to coordinate the aperture setting with the flash's settings. For example, on my Vivitar 2800D there is a switch for selecting the film speed being used (ISO 64, 100, 200, 400, and 1000). Set that first. Then there is a choice of auto programs A1 (longer flash range, wider aperture), A2 (medium flash range, medium aperture) or M (Manual). You then set the lens using the aperture for the program selected. For example, if I'm using ISO 400 film, then set to A1 I set the lens to f/4 and can shoot from 6 to 40 feet. For A2 set the lens for f/8 and the autoflash is good for 3-20 feet. If you chose M, then there is a scale for selecting the proper aperture based on flash-to-subject distance.
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Jon Close |
P.S. Flash exposure (controlled by the sensor on the flash) and ambient exposure (measured by the camera's meter) are separate. If you set aperture priority in an indoor setting, you're apt to get very long shutter speeds at f/5.6 or f/8 (say 1/15 or slower). If your subjects are posed and still, that's not a problem, but if there is any motion, then you'll get ghosting. You can increase the shutter speed to stop motion (up to the maximum 1/125 flash sync of your camera) and that will not affect the exposure on your flash lit subject, but will leave the background darker.
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